Dolcezza Gelato & Coffee — Restaurant in Washington

Not only is the gelato mediocre, but this place will try to scam you. I paid for my gelato and went to walk away, but the absolutely rude woman at the counter told me to stop and I hadn’t paid. I glanced at my phone (I get notifications from Chase every time I use my credit card) and saw I was charged the nine dollars for the cup of gelato. I said “Oh no don’t worry I was charged,” and in a snarky tone of voice the woman claimed I wasn’t. I then pulled up my credit card app and showed her the charge: it had the time, the amount, and said Dolcezza.

She shrugged and told me that’s not what her machine said—she wanted to charge me again. Her tone was so accusatory—as if I had somehow created a false credit card statement in a premeditated act of attempted gelato thievery. And that’s what she truly was accusing me of—attempted theft. Which is incredibly serious. Thank goodness I had put in my phone number on the Ipad to get a receipt. The text came in and I pulled it up and showed her the charge and how it said approved. She then reloaded her ipad (which she should have done in the first place after I showed her my credit card account). She said “oh I don’t know why it did that” and let me go.

No apology for the false accusation or trying to charge me or an apology for her rudeness and disrespectful attitude. And that’s what upsets me. I understand that technology acts up sometimes, but there was no kindness or grace—it was straight to accusing me of attempting to commit a crime with no apology after the mistake was discovered. It would have been no big deal if she said “Whoops it looks like that didn’t go through” and then upon being shown my account being charged, simply apologized and sent me on my merry way. However, that was not the approach that was taken.

I will never come back to this store again. I suppose the true lesson here for myself and hopefully for anyone reading this review is that even though it’s easy to press skip on the ipad, it’s better to always either get a paper receipt or have one texted or emailed to you, otherwise you run the risk of uncaring, unscrupulous people trying to take...

The past two times I've been here were not good experiences. Last week I ordered an iced Americano from the cashier. It took a while for the barista to make it, but I am patient. However, the barista made me a hot coffee by mistake. I didn't have time to ask for her to correct it, so I took the coffee and left. Today when I visited, I ordered the same thing, an iced Americano. I overheard the another person order an iced espresso. I sat and waited for my drink. Then the barista (note: same lady as last week) said, "who ordered an iced espresso? Yea, we don't make those." The gentleman who had ordered it asked to have it hot instead. Then the barista angrily explained to the cashier that they do not make iced espresso there, and she didn't care what anyone else says. It was so unprofessional that she said this in front of customers. When my Americano was ready, I grabbed it and left. I tasted it as I was walking down the street, and it was gross. It tasted like it was so watered down, and all the ice had melted already. How can you mess up such a simple drink? I get iced Americanos from just about every cafe I go to (no, not Starbucks). I think she has no idea how to make them. It's like she made an entire hot coffee and poured it over ice. She has a terrible attitude and can't make the simplest espresso drink. I will never be going back despite the fact that I am in...

Update 4/4/2023. Pre packed pints raised from $7 to $10 and hand packed (what I buy) from $9 to $11. I'll switch back to getting sorbet at Wholefoods for now since it's much less expensive. I will say that i like the current sorbet flavors: grapefruit, mango, honey pineapple. I'll miss strawberry tarragon and basil pineapple when they return. Update July 2022: hand-packed pints raised one dollar but prepacked remain the same. Still worth it. The seasonal flavors are not pre-packed.

I'll give dolcezza credit for being much less expensive than pitango. Dolcezza charges $7 for prepacked pints and $8 for hand packed. Pitango charges $14 now for a pint (it went up from $10 recently). Also, right now, Pitango has a good blueberry sorbet...I bought 2 pints of it yesterday. The alfajores cookies are good too. I do prefer the pineapple sorbet at Pitango (over dolcezza's pinapple sorbet) but I'm not paying $14 plus tax for a pint...so dolcezza wins. Also, the staff is much more helpful...